Just Atheists

by Brian J. Sabel

I don’t think it’s completely out of line to conjecture that a large proportion of the American population believes that “you atheists are all alike.” Frankly, I think we’re hard-wired to make these kinds of overgeneralizations. Ah, but only if it were that easy! If atheists were, in fact, “all alike,” we might see some semblance of consensus in the atheist community – something we seem to have far too little of. Herding cats, anyone?

In my estimation, atheists seem to split into two distinct, and frequently antagonistic, factions. In one corner we have what I will call the Joiners. These are the atheists who do not view themselves as any different than their religious counterparts except that they happen to believe in one fewer god. This group wants to exemplify their commonalities with their community members and seek consensus with persons of differing religious views. This group views a pervasively religious society as a fact of life in which to which the atheist must adapt.

In the other corner we have the Converters. These atheists see themselves as different from religious persons by virtue of the fact that they have thrown off the yoke of religion. They strive to boldly differentiate themselves from the religious and point out the inherent weaknesses in religious thought. They see a pervasively religious society as an illness to be cured by unseating religion in the minds of the masses.

These, of course, are convenient overgeneralizations and many atheists may fall somewhere in between these two descriptions. Further, I may have overlooked some important distinctions. However, my point is that two distinct schools of thought seem to motivate most atheists. What roles do these two perspectives play in the atheist community? Is there room for both? Why do the two find themselves so frequently at odds?